The present disclosure relates to a voice interaction apparatus and a voice interaction method, and in particular to a voice interaction apparatus and a voice interaction method for having a conversation with a user by using a voice.
A technique for enabling a user to enjoy a daily conversation with a voice interaction apparatus such as a voice interaction robot is becoming widespread. A voice interaction robot according to this technique recognizes a voice uttered by a user and produces (outputs) a reply to the recognized voice.
As a technique related to the above-described technique, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-188510 discloses a conversation control system. The conversation control system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-188510 identifies each of the morphemes constituting the content of the user's speech (hereinafter simply referred to as “user speech”), analyzes the semantic content recognized from those specified morphemes, and acquires (i.e., retrieves) a content for a reply that is created in advance and associated with the obtained semantic content. By doing so, the conversation control system outputs an optimal content for a reply to the content of the user's speech.